Borrell made the announcement after chairing, together with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, a regular session of the EU-Armenia Partnership Council in Brussels.
“In October, your prime minister said in the European Parliament that Armenia is ready to move closer to the European Union,” he told a joint news briefing with Mirzoyan. “In response, the European Council, the highest political level of the EU, tasked me and the [European] Commission to explore ways to strengthen our relations in all dimensions. And in this context, today we decided to launch work on an ambitious new EU-Armenia partnership agenda.”
“Today’s meetings showed that EU-Armenia relations are stronger than ever, and there is a mutual interest to advance them further,” added Borrell.
“Armenia is willing to further deepen the partnership with the European Union,” Mirzoyan said for his part.
In his speech at the European Parliament, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian stated that “Armenia is ready to get closer to the EU as much as the EU finds it possible.” But he did not indicate a desire to seek Armenia’s eventual membership in the 27-nation bloc or an alternative to the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) signed by Brussels and Yerevan in 2017.
Mirzoyan stressed on Tuesday that the CEPA “remains the cornerstone of our relations.” Neither he nor Borrell gave details of the closer partnership planned by the two sides.
Borrell called for “enhancing our cooperation in the areas of security and defense.” But he did not promise that the EU will provide military assistance to Armenia under its European Peace Facility (EPF) designed to boost EU partners’ defense capacity. He pointed instead to the ongoing expansion of an EU monitoring mission along Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan.
Nor did Borrell give any dates for the start of a “visa liberalization dialogue” that would eventually lead to the lifting of the EU’s visa requirements for Armenians. He urged the Armenian government to “further step up reforms in order to progress on this issue.” By contrast, Mirzoyan insisted that Yerevan has already met “all the necessary requirements” set by the bloc.
Pashinian’s government is seeking closer ties with the EU amid Armenia’s widening rift with Russia, its longtime ally. Addressing EU lawmakers, Pashinian effectively accused Moscow of using the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict to try to topple him. A Russian official responded by saying that the Armenian premier is helping the West “turn Armenia into another Ukraine.”